Tag Archives: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Camping UnpluggedWe had never tested our Casita’s dry camping ability, so our three night stay at Elkmont was an uncertain one. The report card comes out pretty good. On the third evening we ran out of fresh water. Even though we ran out of water, if we were careful we still had room for one or two more night’s waste water in the holding tanks. Therefore, I carried water from a drinking fountain across the campground in one gallon water jugs and poured them into the fresh water tank. Propane and battery power held out just fine. The conclusion is that we can be fairly liberal with the Casita’s resources if we are willing to hook up and move to a dump station and refill with fresh water every two days. If we are careful and have a fresh water source we can last for, barely, four days. On the “thoughtful” front, I can’t help but note how priorities change when one is out in a small camper like this. At home, such as I just described never enters my mind. I think it’s a good thing once in a while to “unplug” from many of the things we take for granted and let other things (like: how will we keep warm without a furnace) take over. It’s good to be without a cellphone or TV and resort to building a campfire for both warmth and the evening’s entertainment. Somehow, I need to find ways to incorporate that realization into my everyday life.

On the other hand, we moved from the beautiful Elkmont camp with no hookups into Walden’s Creek RV Park in Pigeon Forge. I backed into the site, and had everything from sewer to electric to cable TV ready to hook up. However, I also have neighbors a few feet from me on all sides. No quiet mountain scene, no river rapids outside my door and privacy a bit hard to come by. Instead of waterfalls and wildlife and trails we have outlet malls and restaurants and amusement parks nearby. Those things aren’t bad. In fact, it’s a nice contrast. Still, this isn’t the “sabbatical feeling” I am looking for.

May 18We’ve been dry camping in the national park in one of the most beautiful spots imaginable. However, last night we ran out of water. I have carried some water back to the camper to get us through another night but we’ll move back out to civilization tomorrow. We won’t be in such a nice spot, but we’ll have a few more creature comforts. I guess all of life has trade offs, even camping.

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May 17With the sun shining and things warming up nicely, we drove into Gatlinburg and then up another park road. It is a beautiful drive and we stopped to hike a mile and a half up to Grotto Falls. What a gorgeous spot. We sat and ate a snack and soaked up the view before returning back to the pickup. From there it was back through the traffic jam called Gatlinburg and back into our entrance to the park. The rest of the day will consist of watching the whitewater just behind the camper, reading, and just maybe a nap! If the camper battery, water, and gas hold out we may just stay here an extra day rather than returning to civilization on Monday.

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May 17 Yesterday we moved from the Ela campground near Bryson City, NC over the top of the mountains to the Gatlinburg, TN side of the Smokies. We are now in the Elkmont camp in GSMNP. That means there are no hookups and it also means that we are about as beautiful a camping spot as you’ve ever seen. We have a flowing stream just a few feet behind us and wonderful green mountains all around us. When we got here it was cold and spitting rain. The night was a cold one, down to around 40. Our camper has no on board heat, but we were able to keep things comfortable using the stove. That isn’t the best way to heat, but we kept a couple of windows open a few inches for oxygen, and when we went to bed we shut it down and crawled into our double sleeping bag. We slept great, although when we got up we could see our breath! Once the stove was lit and some coffee was made it was just fine again.

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Grace at work here 1 Samuel 16: At that very moment the Spirit of God left Saul. Over in Bethlehem a secret meeting between Samuel and David is taking place. With his brothers as witnesses, David is anointed king of Israel. This young man is God’s pick to replace Saul. Of course, Saul is unaware […]